So, um, hi

I've been kind of busy lately, between work and keeping myself distracted with gaming, and time just sort of got away from me. And, well, I won't say anything about being 'back' because it's likely to continue. Personal stuff has been making it hard to really want to write about anything, and honestly, I've just been bouncing between games, leveling baby alts most of the time, which is just not really that interesting. And it's not like a lot of people are reading this blog anyways.



Most of my game time has been on Rift. I reactivated my account and got the new Storm Legion expansion with my tax return, and it's been fun. Way more fun than WoW, I have to admit. I feel like a traitor saying that, but it's true. Blizzard has been making so many changes to everything, especially the classes, that it seems like there's no real challenges any more. On the other hand, Rift's class system hasn't changed much, other than each calling getting a new soul with the expansion. Another difference is the factions. While WoW has been pushing the Horde/Alliance war harder with each patch, the line between factions in Rift has almost disappeared. Defiants and Guardians share chat channels, and can even be in the same guild, and there's a new(ish) "mercenary" option for the warfronts, where a character can be switched to the opposing team when one side has a shortage of players. Personally, I have never been a huge fan of PvP, and while I do battlegrounds in WoW once in a while, it more out of boredom than any desire to smash the other factions faces. So the faction mixing in Rift has been a nice change.

Rift has also added player housing, called dimensions, in the expansion, and it's been a blast. There are so many different areas, and everything is completely free-placement, so anyone can build whatever they want, wherever they want it. And make it all public so other players can come admire their handiwork. I've spent almost as much time checking out other players' and guilds' dimensions than I've spent building my own. The only problem has been that it can get to be rather expensive to acquire some of the furniture and stuff. But that's mostly just a problem for lowbie characters. Since rogue-Kelesaria has hit level 50, money has been a much smaller problem, on my main server at least.

It only took until the first expansion to reach the old level cap...

a rather poor view of Vanyell's current home

Besides Rift, I still do log on WoW once in a while. I have discovered something, while running around with my PvP-obsessed brother (cross-realm grouping with friends has been the only really good thing Blizz has done recently). I've discovered that battleground healing is not only rather fun, I'm actually sort of good at it. Definitely not great, but at least mostly competent. And pet battles are still fun in smaller doses. And I'm trying to make myself level a few more characters, even if there's almost no chance of getting them geared up at all, thanks to the rep-gating for all the valor gear. Jahira actually got most of level 87 through healing BGs with my brother's shaman, and my warlock Rynia has had a few tries along with his feral druid. Unfortunately, I'm sort of a fail 'lock in PvP, so I'm trying to focus on leveling Jahira, so she can start tagging along with sis's Rheugan and a few of our Feathermoon friends. Rajji has also been getting some play time, because I want a second 90 hunter, and want to see more of the game's storyline from the Horde side. So far he's almost halfway through 87, in Kun Lai, which is still one of my favorite zones. Getting xp for pet battles is helping a lot, too.

Lord of the Rings Online has been somewhat neglected lately, but having a year-long subscription to it means that it will be there whenever I do want to play. I have gotten one or two more characters a new store-bought horse with my accumulated points, but I've been slacking on taking screenshots.

I did remember to get Dirken's new friend.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has gone free-to-play recently, and I've been goofing around on that whenever I get the chance. My old laptop can't handle the graphics, so I have to borrow sis's computer, which means I can only play when she's not home, but it gives me a couple hours on my days off. My altaholicism has followed me into that game, and so far I have a Sith sorcerer, Imperial agent/sniper, a Jedi sentinel and consular (who will eventually be going shadow once I get through the beginning zone), a trooper/commando, and a smuggler who is still in the starter zone. I'll probably roll a bounty hunter someday, but I'm not sure about the Sith warrior. I didn't really care for the inquisitor's storyline, and I'm not very impressed with the Imperial side in general. I think I'm just too 'nice' for their sheer ruthlessness. Light points all the way! Also, since it's only been on sis's computer, I don't have any screenshots. :(

That's all I can think of, game-wise. Only other things going on right now is work (blah) and real-life issues that no one would want to hear about. My depression has been up and down, mostly down, but at least I have Feathermeet in July to look forward to. We've already got our plane tickets and everything, so I'll have something to be happy about soon. I don't know when I'll have the time/energy/brain power for another blog post so I'm not gonna make any promises as far as that goes.

/waves

Still here

I haven't fallen off the planet (yet) or anything, just been so worn out from work and holiday stuff that I haven't had the energy or brain power to come up with anything interesting to post.

I haven't been on WoW much lately, and when I have it's been mostly just battle pet leveling. At least at this rate I'll have all the leveling achievements done eventually? I think I just got myself a little burned out on dailies/farming/LFR/dungeons/etc., and most of my friends, the main reason I was still logging in, have all been busy doing their own things. So I'm just taking a bit of a break for now.

I've still been getting my gaming fix, but it's been on Lord of the Rings Online mostly. The winter Yule Festival caught my attention, so I started running my characters through the quests there and collecting cosmetic/housing items, and in the process got a couple levels for a few of them. When the holiday was over, I just kept going. It's been a nice change, and there's been a lot of updating that I've missed, like the new version of Bree. Some of the classes have had some minor changes which have made them more fun to play as well, like my new guardian alt. I'm most likely going to be sticking with LotR for a while, with some WoW pet battling thrown in for the excuse to say hi to everyone there.

I'll be trying to come up with a better post soon, with some screenshots and everything, but for now it's bedtime. /Sleepywave

Keepin' Busy

Haven't posted anything for a while, so I guess an update is due, huh? Well, for starters, since the 5.something patch has finally come out, I went and uninstalled the beta from my computer. I hadn't been doing much on it lately, with my lag problems and all, and I figured live stuff would keep me occupied. On that note, Talia, Jahira, Caderly, and Kalenedral are all raid-finder geared by now. Maxwill and Rynia aren't, but I haven't been playing on them much, so it doesn't bother me.

Speaking of Max... Sis has been camping for the blue version of Madexx, and I've been keeping an eye out for her whenever I happen to be in Uldum. So when I was tinkering on my shaman Taarren, I did a quick fly-by to check. He was red, not blue, so just for kicks I switched over to Max, found him again, and boom new pet. Rust says "Hi."

Yes, Max still has his polearm equipped. Don't worry, I switched it for his crossbow right after the screenshot.

And now back to Taarren, I've been playing her again since the patch, and last night she finally joined my level-85 crew.

She's been a load of fun, now that I have less to keep track of with totems and stuff. I think I'm probably switching her 'main' spec from enhancement to elemental for Mists, especially with the new spec-related quest rewards that Blizzard is doing. The only issue I've been having with her is the fact that her elemental gear was noticeably lower than her enhancmemt set. After getting her Firelands starting stuff and Thrall's quest chain done, her gear is much more balanced now, though. I'm looking forward to starting on heroics, and I've started collecting the T2 look-alike set for her transmog.

And now a short update on a more serious note... The main reason I haven't been posting much lately is because my depression problems have been hitting me really hard lately. Between issues at work, certain things going on with my family, and a crapton of other stupid little things, there just hasn't been much to be happy about, outside of Azeroth. And it's really hard to be interested in blogging when all I want to do is hide from the world. My sister, WoW, and a very good friend have been a big help in not letting everything get too bad, and I'm starting to feel a bit better, but there probably won't be much changing as far as blogging goes. When I have something that I think is worth sharing, I'll share it, but I don't want to chase people away with "FML" type posts, because seriously, who would actually want to read about that?

So, anyways, that's about it for now. /Waves

P.S.- Socks the chair-stealer says "Hi"

Um, hi...

So, I just realized it's been almost a month since my last post, so it's probably time for another one, eh?

Starting with some catching up- poor Max has stalled out a bit, sitting at 81 right now. I think I'm giving up on Skoll camping, for now at least. I swear he has to be the most frustrating thing to camp ever. Not even Loque was this bad at spawning. The only single time I ever saw Skoll was when Kel tamed him. (After my sister found him, which emphasizes my bad luck at camping him, I think.) So rather than annoy myself by having my toon freeze his ears off in the snow, I'm going to (eventually) get back to leveling the poor guy. Besides, all the new pets I've been seeing on the beta make me think I should have at least one hunter with lots of stable space.

Talia is still going, at level 75 now. Rogue-ing is still fun, and I cannot wait to get her into Cata content. She even has almost a full set of gear waiting for level 80 already, so hopefully she can avoid the issue Max had, where his gear's ilvl wouldn't let him in the dungeons until right before he hit 81. (And then he dinged doing Children's Week orphan quests. Go figure. :P) Hopefully I can keep going with her, and reach my goal of 85 before MoP comes out.

I have my second character completely transmogged now. :D

Kal, with her Quel'Delar, the Inferno Tempered set from the Shatrath JP vendor, and the no-longer-available Shaleskin Cape. I have to say, she looks pretty danged intimidating. Also, I'm so happy to find a set of armor that doesn't turn into a 'plate-kini' on a female character. (Not that Kal wouldn't wear something like that, just to show off, but she's too smart to actually fight in it. :P) Now I just need to get a decent screenshot of Kel, showing off her Stalker's armor. I might have to just make a whole post for my transmogs, since I have plans for several other characters, I just have to stop being lazy and collect the sets. And take screenshots.

I've been tinkering a bit on other servers out of boredom, and I think I found a new home for all my Hordies on Cenarion Circle. I made a baby tauren druid there, and so far the general atmosphere is pretty nice. My Horde characters on Feathermoon have been neglected lately, so now I'm probably going to be migrating them over to CC, as my finances permit. My Alliance characters on Arthas are most likely going to join them, because I seriously am sick of being on a PVP server. (No offense to my brother, who has almost all of his toons on Arthas. Constant fear of getting ganked is just not my thing. :\) My Blood Elf hunter Kerrowyn has already been moved, and with some help from sis and our buddy, Shadoclaw has started a tiny RP-based guild.

Well, other than a bit more beta tinkering, that's pretty much all the WoW stuff I've been up to. I have to confess, I haven't even been on the game very much lately. I'm not sure if it's boredom, burn-out, RL issues, or a combination of all, but I just can't seem to stay interested in much with WoW. Not even just WoW, either, because LotRO has been just as neglected, if not more so. Honestly, the only reason I bother logging into WoW has been to be around my friends. Although that isn't helping much, because most of the time they're busy with other things, and barely seem notice when I'm online.

And probably the biggest reason that I haven't been on WoW or LotRO- I admit that I've gotten the Tera bug, like my sister. It has been a truckload of fun so far, so much that I don't even have a 'main' character there, because I love playing them all. My archer is my highest level, and is my favorite so far, so I guess he counts? But really, all the classes are fun. The gameplay is amazing. Compared to WoW, which can sometimes get boring and repetitive, combat in Tera has a lot of action, and requires a lot more attention. And some of the scenery is downright breathtaking. I plan on posting some screenshots of my toons, as soon as I can get them from my sister's computer onto mine.

The only problem is, my old laptop is so outdated that it can't run Tera. Like, at all. (It can't run Diablo 3 either. /sadface) So the only time I can play is when sis is working on my days off, so I can use her desktop computer. It's been working out okay so far, but it sucks not being able to play together, and it does get frustrating for me when our schedules don't give me time to play for days at a time. So, I am now looking to get a new computer. My financial situation is going to make it take a while, though.

Not much else worth mentioning at the moment. Hopefully I won't take another month to come up with another update. :\   /Waves

I'm still here...

Yes, I'm having another fail-blogger spell. Work has been insane with the holidays, and me and sis have been trying to get ourselves ready as well. And then there's the stupid $%^$ing virus that got on my good laptop. I'm having to use my old one for now, (thank goodness I've been keeping it more or less up-to-date) which now can only run Lord of the Rings. So unless I get desperate enough to borrow sis's old laptop, WoW is unavailable until my 'puter is cleaned up and fixed.

Lesson from all this? Never trust a website that has issues with pop-ups. Even something as innocent-seeming as a site for song lyrics. :(

This will likely be the only blog post I make til my good 'puter is fixed, since all my screenies and most of my story-related stuff was on that one. Good news is, my dad has a friend that can fix it. Bad news is, I have no idea how long it will take. Hopefully not more than a couple days. This old thing I'm using now has it's fair share of issues, and is slow as heck. If I didn't need my gaming fix, I would probably not even bother. *sigh*

Silence...

Not much interesting going on lately. Mostly just goofing around on Rift, with occasional visits to LotRO or WoW. My rogue on Rift is 45 now, only 5 more levels til I can start seeing what the endgame content is like. And, ya know, start on my next alt. >.>

I've had some interesting things going on in my head, RP-wise. Such as Kal getting a new (and rather impressive) scar, and some back-story stuff for a few LotR characters. The only problem is getting everything sorted out enough to write out. There may be some Storytime posts in the future, but I don't want to make any definite promises. Because I have a bad habit of failing them. :(

One interesting (to me, at least) thing I've been doing is taking screenshots. Enjoy!

Some of these animals in Rift just can't get along...










Moonshade Highlands may be the prettiest zone in the game...


Iron Pine Peaks is second (although the constant snowfall makes me lag)...


Kelesaria the rogue got a new buddy, courtesy of the FaeYule holiday event (and lots and lots of dailies)...


The Defiant capitol, Meridian...



My champion Aravann got himself a fancy horse, and I spoiled him with a /mountrearup emote as well...


My hunter Kelvren in Evendim, another gorgeous zone...


Another shot of Evendim...


And I think that's enough for now. :P
Thanksgiving went pretty good for me. Having the whole weekend off, except for coming in to help another department Saturday night (fun and easy compared to what I usually do), helped a lot. Just have to make it through Christmas and New Year's now. It never stops surprising me how rude and impatient people can get during holidays. Angry people in the check-out lines, drivers in the parking lot acting like they're on the friggin' freeway, it's enough to make me want to hide at home until the season is over. I lost track of how many times some driver came within inches (literally!) of hitting me, whenever I'm bringing the shopping carts back inside. Come on, people, aren't holidays supposed to be happy? What's the huge rush for? Geez... /endrant

Anyways, hope all the (few) people that read this had a good Thanksgiving, and have a good (and safe!) rest of the holidays. /Waves

Ugh....

Real Life is being a little crazy right now. Work is wearing me out, and now me and sis are getting ready to move out of the house we've been renting with 2 other people, and into an apartment by ourselves. When I have the time (and energy) for gaming, I'm still mostly on Rift. I still come back to tinker on Warcraft every now and then, but it's mostly just been to say hi to people, and tinker around a bit. Like parking Rajji out in Azshara to look for the Evalcharr, the green chimera, who is being very shy so far. Raj has also been doing some dungeons and a bit of questing, and is 82 now. Bearkat is up to 83, and finished Hyjal. I think I'm going to do the World Pillar questlines in Deepholm on him before going out to Uldum. If I do instances with him as well as questing, Uldum might get him all the way to 85, then Twilight Highlands will be easy (and make a lot of money as well).

My cleric on Rift has been a ton of fun. She's almost level 30, and her melee-leveling spec is surprisingly resilient. I've been having fun pvping with her healing spec too, and Monday night, me and a buddy (on his 36 rogue) managed to duo the first instance. FYI, instances in Rift are hard! I actually half-soloed the last boss, because my friend died, so I ran around healing myself and putting DoTs on the boss until he could run back in and help finish him off. It was awesome, and nice to find out that I can manage healing in a new game. I'm still really nervous about trying to tank on my warrior though. :P And yes, my altaholicism has transferred itself over to Rift. Fortunately, the way the classes work, I just need one of each calling, and I can just respec whoever I'm playing however I want, depending on what I feel like doing at the time. Cleric is definitely my favorite, rogue and warrior are fun, but I'm having a hard time getting my mage to 'click'. I do like playing him, I just tend to get bored on him kind of fast. I've taken a few screenshots, which I'll probably post later, with a more detailed post about the game.

And one last thing, my drawing itch has been quiet lately, but I do have a new one of my druid kitties. Jahira and Windstar, in one of their favorite positions -



Aren't they cuuuuute?

And now to try to get myself to bed at a decent time. After one last lap to see if that darn chimera is out. >.>

/Waves

p.s.- My little depression problem has been a bit better lately, but that's something for another post. Later. Maybe.

Short Post is Short... sort of

Not much going on. Kel's guild raided ICC again, but I was only there for the first night (Wednesday). The reason was, Friday night me and sis went to hang out with our brother and some friends, then Saturday was a friend's engagement party. Perhaps I should feel guilty for skipping on the raids, but you know what? I had fun for the first time in... well, a very long time. WoW has not been the fun distraction that it used to be, and I think it has been good for me to be around people, especially family. There has been almost nothing to do lately except heroics, dailies, and rep grinds, and it's all just getting a bit boring. Especially since one of my friends has suddenly been MIA, and another has been distracted by Starcraft 2. Don't worry, I'm not quitting the game or anything, not even close. I'm just sort of taking it easy with it, until the expansion comes out.

On that note, I have rerolled Kalenedral's sister Riàtha on Feathermoon. Since my financial situation has yet to improve, and I had made a character to hold the name, I decided to just level that toon, instead of transfering my 80 from Gilneas. Only problem so far is, I have no idea what to do proffession-wise. She has mining right now, for money, but I'm not sure whether to take another money-maker, or try (again) to skill up a blacksmith.

Work is still wearing me down, but my hours are slightly better this week, so at least my paycheck will be decent. Maybe. I hope.

And it is way too late, and I haven't been sleeping well lately, so I'm off to bed. I need to stop trying to write blog posts this late, I really do. /waves

An Update and an Apology

Well, I have been working on alts a lot lately. My tauren druid Bearkat is 76 and tanking stuff like a pro (which I am not, har har). Talía the Belf rogue is slowly getting up there, sitting at 26 now. Rynia the warlock is almost 74 and going through the Wrathgate quest chain. My undead shadow priest Caderlly is 74 too, and doing Wrathgate from the horde side. And my death knight Riatha is finally up to 79, and working on getting her to 80 next. I have been doing a little bit on my neglected draenei shammy too. She is dual specced for elemental now, and I'm trying to collect some caster gear for her (with help from a friend). On hindsight, I probably should have just saved the gold and respecced her, rather than buying her dual spec. Oh well.

As far as my 80s go, Kelesaria is trying to start raiding again. My GL is no longer MIA, and the guild is trying to get going again. Only problem is, all our regulars from before are now MIA most of the time. /Sigh. Jahira has switched her resto spec for a tanking spec, and it's been pretty fun. Playing Bearkat made me realize how much I've missed bear tanking, and it's been good to have Jahira back at it, after being a guild tank for the end of BC. I still run into the random jerks in LFD, but hey, that's what /ignore is for, right? Windstar has been getting some play time, even if it is only to run around picking herbs for Rynia's alchemy. I've missed my lil kitty, and I may start playing her more after I get bored with my leveling binge. My tauren shaman Taarren has been getting somewhat geared up. Switching her back to elemental was definately a good idea. Enhancement was fun, but there's a lot of little details to keep track of in order to play well, and I was getting slightly frustrated with it. Elemental is quite a bit simpler, and tons of fun. Rajji and Tadrith have sadly been neglected. Not that I'm getting tired of huntering, it's just that, when I do want to play a hunter, I want to be on Kel. And honestly, it doesn't really bother me that much.

And then there's Kal. Argh. For reasons that I will get into in a minute, I haven't been able to do much on Kal lately. I have been doing her JC daily, and sometimes I'll do a heroic as well, but then I get bored, or something, and switch to another toon. I really want to play Kal, but when I'm on her... I don't know.

I think mostly, it's just that I have been really depressed lately. Depression is a problem I have had for the last couple of years, but usually I'm able to distract myself from it, with friends and WoW. This time around, however, nothing is really working. Trying not to go into details, but I have just been feeling frustrated, ignored, and alone lately. My brother (when he is not at his base in another state) and one of my WoW friends have been helping, but really, there's only so much they can help me with right now. My schedule and other issues at work, and a ton of financial problems, have only been making it all worse. My job makes me tired all the time, I have health issues that I don't have the money to fix, and I have been having trouble sleeping, even when I'm worn out from work.

So, the point to all this is, I want to say I'm sorry to my Warcraft friends. I don't know if anyone has even noticed my absence from RP time, or when I'm hiding on different servers/factions. But right now, even as lonely as I feel most of the time, I'm just not much fun to be around. I'm trying to get myself over this, it's just taking a while. Hopefully I can be back hanging around with everyone soon, without the bouts of self-pity and grumpiness.

And getting back to my problems with playing Kal... All I can say is, it's just too hard to play a character that is suposed to be happy, as well as being in an awesome relationship with someone she adores, when I am so miserable and lonely. Not to mention the fact that Kal hasn't even seen 'her girl' in-game in weeks. Again, I am sorry. I just can't keep this going on my own, so I'm resorting to avoiding it. The worst part is, all my other RL problems are making it hard to care (much).

This has been one of the hardest posts I have ever written, and I'm probably going to be second-guessing posting it at all for a while. But I wanted the (most likely) few people who know me, who actually read this blog, to know what's been going on.